National Actors Theatre Production Opens At The Lyceum Theatre

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani tonight delivered the curtain speech at the opening night performance of Neil Simon's THE SUNSHINE BOYS at the Lyceum Theatre on West 45th Street. The play unites America's favorite odd couple, Jack Klugman and Tony Randall.

"First of all, I want to say that if you are ever preparing to do skits on television -- as I was recently -- 'The Sunshine Boys' is the last thing you want to see," Mayor Giuliani said. "It's hilarious, especially with two of our most gifted actors, Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, playing Willie Clark and Al Lewis. And that's precisely the problem. No matter how hard you try, you can never be as funny as these two.

"This is yet another wonderful production by 'The National Actors Theater,' which continues to assert its place as one of Broadway's greatest treasures," the Mayor continued. "Which brings me to the subject of Tony Randall, the Founder and Artistic Director of the National Actors Theatre. Tony is now celebrating his 50th year on Broadway. The 50 years in between Tony Randall's first performance and this performance is split in half by the original production of 'The Sunshine Boy,' starring Jack Albertson and Sam Levene, which opened on December 20, 1972. So it's a great night for the National Actors Theater, for Neil Simon, for Tony Randall, for Jack Klugman and for Broadway."

The Sunshine Boys revolves around characters Willie Clark (Jack Klugman) and Al Lewis (Tony Randall), a pair of warring legendary vaudevillians, who are trying to solve the problem of getting along with each other long enough to do one of their skits for a TV special. The Sunshine Boys originally opened in 1972 at the Broadhurst Theatre where it ran for 538 performances. The 1975 United Artists film version starred Walter Matthau and George Burns, who won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor.

Performances run from Tuesday through Saturday at 8 pm, with matinees Wednesday & Saturday at 2 pm and Sunday 3 pm. Students with a valid I.D. pay only $10 for all performances.